From cell to cell: Kyle Cole builds bridges for nontraditional learners at Stanford

Nikkhilesh Ranjith still has the photo from his first day at Stanford Medicine — in which he stands, in his own words, beaming with “pure joy, pride, gratitude and a lot of disbelief.”

Ranjith, a formerly incarcerated student, came to Stanford to work at the Helms Lab in summer 2024.

“I cannot emphasize enough how crazy it is to go from sitting in a cell where you have no control over anything to sitting in a high-tech lab like something out of a movie, doing things we actually see in movies, where every idea I have could produce tangible results that could change lives,” Ranjith wrote in an email to The Daily.

Ranjith carved a unique path, but it was one of many facilitated by the work of Kyle Cole.

Cole has served as director of education and STEM outreach at Stanford’s Office of Community Engagement (OCE) since 2023. There, he leads efforts to connect faculty and staff at Stanford with students who don’t usually picture themselves on the Farm, including community college students and those who were formerly incarcerated.

“Community college students have few internship and work-experience opportunities, which can be pivotal for advancing their educational career,” Cole wrote in an email to The Daily.

Many faculty, graduate students and staff at Stanford had long been working on outreach initiatives, but until recently, Cole said, their efforts often went siloed. In 2022, to resolve this problem, Cole launched the Stanford Community College Community of Practice (CoP), a decentralized network that brought together people who had been independently supporting community college outreach. The idea, he said, was “bringing people together in the same space to say, ‘Hey, what do you do and how can we work together?’”

By summer 2024, more than 170 community college students were hosted in labs and programs across Stanford.

“The CoP has created a structured mechanism for sharing and coordinating community college outreach programs in units across campus,” wrote Michael Acedo, assistant director of project innovation and technology in the Office of Digital Education. “Cole has been instrumental in leading this effort, which has enabled different groups to highlight their work, exchange ideas and inspire new partnerships.”

One of the partnerships Cole helps support is with nano@Stanford, where interns from community colleges build industry-leading technical skills while also supporting daily operations.

“The internship program has nurtured a truly symbiotic relationship between the interns and facility staff,” wrote Daniella Duran M.A. ’97, education and outreach program manager. “While the staff are training and empowering these community college students, the interns in turn are providing critical facility operational support.”

Interns have presented their research at nano@Stanford’s Open House, led training videos and tours and attended their first technical conferences. Many continue to work at Stanford after the program ends.

One former intern, Alsyl Enriquez, later conducted summer research at Harvard. 

“I can’t emphasize enough how influential and foundational my experience at Stanford was in helping me not only secure a research position at Harvard, but also succeed in it,” Enriquez wrote.

Cole’s collaborators also recognized another group who faced challenges in accessing education: students who had been impacted by the criminal justice system.

“There are underserved students, and then there are really underserved students who have few opportunities,” Cole said. “Once you’ve been in the criminal justice system, the number of doorways that are open to you just close tremendously.”

With internship funding available, Cole reached out to Rising Scholars, Berkeley’s Underground Scholars and Project Change at the College of San Mateo in 2023 to recruit formerly and currently incarcerated learners. In the program’s first summer, five system-impacted students joined Stanford labs.

Jorge Gonzalez, a student from this life experience who conducted research at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis in summer 2024, wrote that “being able to have this opportunity to collaborate and work remotely for Stanford was amazing. I gained new skills and knowledge that can help me as I work toward my bachelor’s degree.”

Despite the opportunity, many faced obstacles while they were on campus. Cole described how one intern didn’t have stable housing and was taking Zoom calls from a car for their internship. Another had permission to come to the program during the day, but had a curfew that required him to be back in his home by 6 p.m.

“That puts you in a very different group than other students,” Cole said.

Each time Cole shares his work, he said, more faculty, staff and students reach out asking how they can get involved.

“I would just say for formerly incarcerated students, to not count them out as part of the pool,” Cole said. “They have all the abilities of these other students and even fewer opportunities to demonstrate those abilities.”

As for Ranjith, he wanted to offer one final note to other students from similar backgrounds: “Your past and background does not make you inferior to anyone or diminish your potential for success,” he wrote. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions because that is literally what research is.”

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